In this month’s blog I’d like to expand a little further on my own personal philosophy with regards to BJJ. As many of you know; my favourite place to be is top side control! However, in this blog I would like to explain a little more about how and why I came to this conclusion. Of course I do not expect everyone to follow me and copy my game (I would try my best to expose all my students to ALL aspects of the game, so they can develop their own game). However, if you find some of my thoughts resonate with you, then by all means please feel free to follow me. So what follows is a rough game plan and my thoughts and reasons behind what I would call my “A-Game”. Please note, that of course, fights don’t always go as planned so you need to have back up plans. Also, in the interests of being a rounded BJJ player I also practise ALL aspects of the game as my back up plan. But what follows is my fight as it plays out in the perfect world.

TAKEDOWNS & THROWS

The fight starts standing up. In my game plan I will always attempt to get the takedown. My reasons for this are as follows:
(1) Being aggressive with the takedown and dominating this aspect of the fight psychologically gets in the opponents mind. They are put on the back foot from the go get, and you begin the fight in the advantageous position: mentally and physically.
(2) You score points early. If you pull to the guard you still have work to do before you can score.
(3) Passing the guard during the takedown phase means you can stay away from people’s guard, which is the most dangerous aspect of most people’s game. If possible I like to finish throws that end up with me direct in side control, thus evading the tiring work of guard passing.
(4) From my background in “reality based” martial arts, I do not want to create a habit of going to the ground too easily. In a street situation I would like to finish the fight on my feet, and would resort to a takedown as an option if I was getting beat on my feet. I certainly wouldn’t be jumping or pulling to the guard.

GUARD PASSING

Assuming your game plan didn’t go to plan and your opponent pulled guard (which is very highly likely); or your opponent recovered a guard from bottom side control (again which is very likely), you should also be focusing a lot of attention to the game of guard passing. Here are my reasons why:
(1) Because BJJ!… that’s why… nearly ALL of your opponents will love to fight off their back! That’s what BJJ guys do! Someone has to be on top and working for the pass… might as well be you! Thinking logically about this, (as random numbers) if 90% of BJJ players like to play guard on the bottom… to be better than them at that game you have to beat 90% of the population. If you practise on top you only have to be better than 10% of them to be one of the best guard passers.
(2) If you pull to the guard you still have to sweep to get points. and how many points to sweep? 2 points! If you pass = 3 points! So I feel that pulling to the guard and sweeping is more effort than just going straight to passing… and you get rewarded slightly more points for this.
(3). Many times when you sweep an opponent from the guard, a good player will make some kind of guard and you will arrive on top inside his guard… meaning you now have to pass anyway! Why not cut out the middle man and go straight to the passing phase of the game. To me it seems kind of backwards and illogical. Why put my back on the mat if the ultimate goal is to come to the top and be on top? Why not just go straight to the top.
(4) Again because of my mentality with regards to more reality based situations I’d much rather be on top inside the guard where I can stand up and not be stuck on the bottom, so I will typically be working for a pass as I rarely put my back on the mat straight away (during my “A game”).

PINNING & PRESSURE

As I said previously my favourite place to be is top side control. In this phase of the fight I concentrate on pinning my opponents and applying plenty of pressure to them. Here’s my thoughts on this:
(1) From top side control you can apply huge amounts of pressure with relative ease. The pressure is what wears your opponent down and tires them out. Even if they manage to re-guard… you make it so hard for them that as soon as they do you’re back to your passing game and not giving them any rest. Again trying to score more points while your opponent is tired from the effort of all that work and relieving the pressure.
(2). In JiuJitsu the person who is the most comfortable is usually winning. Being top side control is very comfortable and you can relax and use your weight distribution and a few tricks to make your opponent very uncomfortable. You can conserve your energy ready for any sudden explosive movements from your opponent and use very little energy, while your opponent will start to become diminished.
(3). There are a lot of very easy submissions to try catch from top side that will not end up with you losing your position. If your attacks fail, or are defended you can typically stay on top and still maintain that dominant position. With an attack from the mount you usually need to fall backwards (for a basic arm bar say) this runs the risk of you having the position changed on you and you are then on the bottom getting the pressure.
(4) If you go the mount, to a certain extent you become a part of your opponent. I feel you have less places to go against an explosive powerful fighter. You really need to develop a lot of skills to stay on top and dominante that position. You need to concentrate on using your posts to stay on top. But the moment you attack you usually have to sacrifice a “post” temporarily, which results in you becoming momentarily unbalanced. Now I know it’s possible to dominate the mount and there are tricks you can do to stay there and still attack… but I generally feel it is still a slightly more “risky” place to be than side.
(5) It’s demoralising and intimidating for your opponent when you pin them down and they literally cannot move. I’ve been stuck on bottom side when absolutely nothing gets you out… even brute force and power… absolutely everything is shut down… its not a nice place to be at all.
(6) You are not deeply entangled with your opponent… you are always able to get to your feet with relative ease… there I go again thinking about the street. But it’s true… if you consider the possibility of another opponent where would you want to be? Top side and quickly back on your feet? Or wrapped up in some crazy kind of know playing some messed up crazy inverted “worm” type guard?
(7) Knee on belly is always a good (quite easy) option… either to score more points… or start striking of the rules or situation permits.
(8) Going to North South is also a good option to stay well away from the legs / guard.

So there you have it. My “A Game”. To be perfectly honest with you… it’s very boring. Because it’s very simple. When the cards are down on the table, I play safe and take very few risks. Many of you know that when I competed my mantra was always SIDE, SMASH, SUBMIT. This was very important to me. I knew I had to get to side. Preferably by takedown. If they pulled I’d pass and get to side. I was taken down I knew I had to re-guard, sweep (possibly pass) and then get to side. The next phase of the fight was SMASH. This part is very important. This is the pressure part of the game. Against a strong “game” opponent you need to wear them down and tire them out before you go for any subs. This part of the game is crucial to achieving success with the final part… which is SUBMIT. Usually when you pressure your opponent, and frustrate them and tire them out so much, they typically end up making a mistake, and you can get the submission much easier. I don’t really tend to like scrambly types of games. I like to be economical and efficient. Conserving my energy and forcing my opponent to make a mistake that ultimately ends in his demise. Maybe I’m lazy?? Call me what you want want… but if you are considering competing surely conserving energy is a good idea? Especially in a big bracket. The biggest energy expenditure will be during the take down phase of the game. After that once you get to side you can rest and regroup, ready to smash your opponent. Whilst at the same time conserving energy for your next.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that if I played my A-game all the time (during training) it would in fact be very boring for me too! I love JiuJitsu and I really love trying new positions and trying to improve on my weak areas. Just like stand up I believe a fighter should be comfortable fighting both southpaw and orthodox… In BJJ I believe you should be comfortable passing and on your back. But when the chips are down…. you need to be strong in one particular area and that’s the one you will favour. Try all the types of games before you settle on one. I was playing on my back from white till half way through purple belt. It was only really late purple and my entire period at brown that I really started to develop my concepts listed above.

Until Next Time!
I’ll see you on the mats!
Ossssssss!